Call progress information in cable telephony

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for obtaining and displaying call progress information of a telephone call on the monitor of the television, including means for communicating control signals that flow in either direction between the apparatus and a set top box that controls the television.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/110,498,filed Apr. 20, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,133,507 which is a continuationof application Ser. No. 10/732,001, filed Dec. 10, 2003, now U.S. Pat.No. 6,920,206 issued Jul. 19, 2005, which is a continuation ofapplication Ser. No. 10/193,455, filed Jul. 10, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No.6,707,893, issued Mar. 16, 2004.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to telephone service over a cable network.

For many years, telecommunication service in the United States has beenoffered primarily through a network having wire pairs extending tocustomer homes. More recently, cellular telephony has taken off, andefforts are being made to similarly expand the telecommunicationofferings through hybrid fiber-coax cable (HFC).

U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,653 describes an illustrative system, not unlike theone depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2, that provides telephone service through acable network, as well as Internet service through the cable network. InFIG. 1, a fiber-coax cable 100 extends from head-end station 110 to aplurality of customers, such as customers 200 and 300, which tap intothe cable. Cable 100 is representative of an entire network of cablesthat extend from head-end station 110. Station 110 obtains televisionsignals from some source (for example, the antenna depicted with station110), modulates those signals into preselected frequency bands, andforwards the signals downstream by means of HFC cable 100. Within acustomer's premises, cable 100 signal is received in a set-top box, suchas box 210, the set-top box demodulates the received signal inaccordance with instructions provided to box 210 by a user, resulting ina specific channel (frequency band) being applied to television monitor170 at the frequency band to which the tuner within television 170 isset. Thus the user receives a television signal from the specificchannel. This is, basically, a one-way broadcast communicationarrangement, from head-end 110 to all of the customers on cable 100.

Internet service is provided to PC 150 of customer 200 by interposingcable modem 220 between cable 100 and PC 150. To accommodate such aservice, cable 100 and head-end 110 must be adapted to allow two-waycommunication between the PCs of the various customers that areconnected to cable 100 and possess a cable modem, and head end 110 or,more specifically, a data point-of-presence (POP) 120 that is connectedto head-end station 110. Relative to Internet service, POP 120 may be anInternet Service Provider (ISP) that is connected to the Internet.Information flows between POP 120 and cable modem 220 in IP packetsthat, while flowing through cable 100, are modulated onto a carrier.

Telephony service is provided also through cable modem 220, head-endstation 110, and POP 120, by carrying the service also through IPpackets that flow through cable 110. Thus, modem 220 is more than just acable modem because it is adapted to handle telephone signals, and POP120 is more than just an ISP because it is adapted to be connected tolocal switch 140 of the PSTN, through packet gateway 130, which convertsbetween the analog signals of switch 140 and the IP packets signals ofPOP 120.

FIG. 2 depicts the structure of cable modem 220, essentially asillustrated in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,653. Viewedmacroscopically, it includes Internet module 700 and a telephony module600. In module 700, tuner 760 receives signals in the frequency banddevoted to IP packet communication and applies its received signal todemodulator 735, which demodulates the received signal to recover asequence of received TCP/IP or UDP/IP frames and applies them to framer730. The latter provides a stream of packets to CPU 725, which is astored-program controller with associated memory 705. CPU 725 providestiming, synchronization and error handling controls to framer 730. CPU725 also provides IP packets to PC 150 via interface 745. In theupstream direction, packets from PC 150 are applied to framer 730 viainterface 745 and CPU 725, and thence to transmitter 740, which provideserror correction/detection coding such as Reed-Solomon coding and formsa modulated intermediate frequency (IF) carrier signal. The IF signal isapplied to radio frequency (RF) modulator 750, which up-modulates itsinput signal to the proper frequency bands and forwards the modulatedsignal to cable 100. Thus, a path is provided for IP packets to flowback and forth between PC 150 and POP 120.

Telephony module 600 comprises a controller that is composed of digitalsignal processor (DSP) 620 and associated memory 625. The module furthercomprises analog-digital converter 610, andsubscriber-line-interface-circuit (SLIC) 605. The controller performsall of the necessary control telephony functions, converter 610 providesthe interface between the digital signals of DSP 620 and the analogsignals of SLIC 605 and telephone 160, and SLIC 605 provides thetip/ring interface to telephone 160, such as the ability to senseoff-hook, provide loop current, provide dial tone, detect dialing (pulseor DTMF), provide a ringing signal, etc. DSP 620 is coupled to CPU 725to provide a two-way communication path of digitized telephony signals(IP packets) between telephone 160 and cable 100.

Perusing U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,653 may provide additional insights.

The above described arrangement provides telephony service for telephone160, digital communication (Internet) service for PC 150 (which hascomputing capability as well as audio and video capability), andentertainment programming service for TV 170 (which also has audio andvideo capability)—but all of these services are independent, and do notcommingle. We realized that an advance in the art can be attained byallowing these to commingle.

In a related art, U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,231 describes an arrangement forenhancing a customer premises message-recoding device. The enhancedrecording device has the ability to store caller ID information arrivingfrom the telephone network in association with the incoming call that isrecorded, as well the ability to ascertain the call duration and otherinformation. This information is stored in association with the storedmessage. Through a remote controller that connects to the enhancedrecording device through an IR link, a user can retrieve the storedmessages and the stored associated information. To display the retrievedinformation, the conventional cable-TV connection between the set-topbox and the TV monitor is looped through the enhanced recorder, and theretrieved information is displayed on the TV monitor though a videointerface connector that is connected to the TV monitor.

What the U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,231 suggests is the notion of storingcaller ID and other data that is provided by the telecommunicationnetwork in association with an incoming call that is recorded, so thatthereafter, the information is retrieved by a user and displayed by theuser on a TV monitor. However, the patent does not teach how theincoming information is modified to a format suitable for a televisionmonitor, or how the video interface connector interacts with the cablefrom the set-top box to inject its signal so that it may be displayed onthe TV monitor. Moreover, the arrangement is not interactive, in thesense that the enhanced recording device stores information, but theuser can only retrieve it. The user cannot control the call progress, orany other interaction with the telecommunication network, based on realtime information obtained from the TV monitor.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An advance in the art is realized in an environment where a cableprovides programming information to a television monitor as well astelephony service. In the disclosed method, call progress information ofa telephone call is displayed on the television monitor, and means areincluded in the arrangement for sending control information upstreamover the cable in connection with the call progress, for example toobtain additional information. Thus, when call progress informationcomes from a cable's head end, a determination is made as to whether itis sufficient, and if not, a query is forwarded upstream to the headend. The head end obtains information that is responsive to the queryand sends it downstream, where received additional information iscombined with the previously received information and a display on thetelevision monitor is created of the combined information. In thisenvironment, apparatus is disclosed for obtaining and displaying callprogress information of a telephone call on the monitor of thetelevision, including means for communicating control signals that flowin either direction between the apparatus and a set top box thatcontrols the television.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 presents a block diagram of a prior art cable telephonyarrangement;

FIG. 2 presents details of the cable modem in the FIG. 1 arrangementthat is adapted for telephony service;

FIG. 3 presents the block diagram of one illustrative embodiment inaccord with the principles disclosed herein;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of another illustrative embodiment in accordwith the principles disclosed herein;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a call progress;

FIG. 6 illustrates two call progress menus; and

FIG. 7 presents yet another embodiment in accord with the principlesdisclosed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 3 presents a block diagram of one illustrative embodiment in accordwith the principles disclosed herein, where elements with labels thatare the same as elements in FIG. 2 perform the same respectivefunctions. FIG. 3 comprises HFC cable 100 that is connected to set-topbox 50 and to cable modem 222. Cable modem 222 may be identical to cablemodem 220, except for lead 223 that interconnects DSP 621 of modem 222with set-top box 50. The signal flowing from DSP 620 providesinformation regarding that which set-top box 50 is to display on TV 55.The signal flowing from set-top box 50 provides telephony controlinformation. DSP 612 is identical to DSP 620 of FIG. 2, except that theset of programs that are resident in memory 625 that is associated withDSP 621 (shown in FIG. 1) includes modules to accommodate thefunctionalities for which lead 223 is included.

Set-top box 50 comprises numerous elements that, individually, are wellknown in the art. A signal from cable 100 is received in modulator 54where, under direction of controller 51, element 54 modulates theincoming signal to shift a particular television broadcast channel inthe input signal (specified by a user) to a specific frequency band; forexample, the frequency band corresponding to channel 3 in the monitor'sinternal tuner. The particular desired broadcast channel that is shiftedinto the specific frequency band is applied to receiver element 55,where it is decomposed to form a baseband video signal and acorresponding audio signal. These two signals are applied to combinerelement 56, which, in the absence of any signals from frame & soundgeneration element 53, transfers its video and audio input signals toits outputs, unchanged. Transmitter element 57 recomposes the basebandvideo and audio signals to form a TV signal not unlike the one that isapplied to element 55, and applies its output signal to TV monitor 55.

Controller 51 is coupled to frame & sound generation element 53. Element53 is adapted to create various video images and/or sounds underdirection of controller 51. Illustratively, element 53 may comprise amemory with a pre-stored collection of video signals (effectively, alarge database), and controller 51 merely specifies the particular videosignal that is to be retrieved and applied to combiner element 56.Alternatively, element 53 may include a processing capability, whichpermits use of a much smaller memory of pre-stored video signals. Forexample, element 53 may have a “curser” image that is stored, and aprocessing capability that can create a video image of a curser pointingat whatever x,y coordinate of the TV monitor's screen that thecontroller desires. In such an embodiment, controller 51 might, forexample, send the command “curser, 65, 75” to element 53, and inresponse thereto element 53 creates a video signal that, when displayedon the screen of monitor 55, shows a curser that is 65% (of the screen'swidth) away from the left edge of the screen and 75% (of the screen'sheight) away from the top edge of the screen.

When an audio signal is generated by element 53, it is applied tocombiner 56, wherein the generated audio signal is simply added to theaudio signal provided by element 55, thereby creating the audio signalprovided by combiner 56 to element 57. In an analogous manner, the videosignal generated by element 53 is combined with the video signalprovided by element 55. Video combining can be effected in numerousmanners, as is well known in the art. Illustratively, the video imagecreated by element 53 can be arranged to replace the video imageprovided by element 55 by having whatever pixel in the image generatedby element 53 that is not a “black pixel,” replace the pixel provided byelement 55. Black pixels leave the video pixels provided by element 55unchanged.

A user (not shown) can direct controller 51 through conventional remotecontroller unit 60 that sends commands to controller 51 by outputting aninfrared (IR) signal. (A functionally equivalent controller is oftenalso found integral to the television monitor.) The IR signal isaccepted by IR receiver 58, and forwarded to controller 51.Conventionally, such a command might direct controller 51 to change thechannel that is modulated by element 54 into the specific frequencyband, to display a menu, e.g., to change the time shown on a clock ofset-top 50 (not shown), to move a curser that is shown on monitor 55pursuant to instructions from controller 51, as described above, etc.The very same commands of unit 60 can be used for the purposes of thisinvention.

In accord with the principles disclosed herein, two-way communication isestablished between DSP 621 in telephony module 600 and controller 51 toenable the user, through remote controller 60, to display telephonyinformation on monitor 55 and to control telephony functions related totelephone 160.

It may be noted that cable modem 220 is drawn with an Internet module700 and a telephony module 660. This is done solely to make the FIG. 3arrangement resemble the FIG. 2 arrangement as closely as possible. If acomputer interface to the Internet is not needed, a number of elementsin the Internet module can be coalesced into the telephony module toform a compact design. Indeed, markedly different embodiments can alsobe employed without departing from the spirit of that which is disclosedherein.

FIG. 4 presents one such other embodiment in accord with the principlesdisclosed herein, where, again, elements with labels that are the sameas elements in FIGS. 2 and 3 perform the same respective functions. InFIG. 4, the point of connection of HFC cable 100 to equipment at thecustomer's premises is broadband telephone interface (BTI) module 65.

Within BTI 65, the signal of cable 100 is coupled to an arrangementcomprising tuner 760, receiver 755, framer 730, transmitter 740, and RFmodulator 750 in the same manner as these elements are connected in FIG.2. Framer 220 is connected to DSP 622, with associated memory 625, whichserves the functions of CPU 725 and DSP 621. DSP 622 is connected tointerface circuit 745, which provides a port for PC 150, and to anarrangement that includes analog to digital conversion module 610 andSLIC module 615, where the latter provides a port for telephone 160.

Module 40 in FIG. 4 is the set-top box that provides television signalsto TV monitor 55. In FIG. 3, the television signal is provided toset-top box 50 directly from cable 100. In contradistinction, in FIG. 4the television signal is provided to set top box 50 through interposedBTI 65 and, more specifically, through interposed “piggy-back” (PB)element 61 within BTI 65. The purpose of circuit 61 is to eliminate theneed for the separate line 223 that is employed in the FIG. 3arrangement (which connects DSP 621 to controller 51). Set-top box 40 isidentical to set-top box 50 of FIG. 3, except that it includes PBelement 59 that is interposed between the input of set-top box 40 andcontroller 51. Thus, other than the significant benefit of eliminating awire connection between the set-top box that connects to the televisionmonitor and the BTI (which in a customer's home might be at the point ofentry into the home) and the concomitant burden of using elements PB 61and PB 59, the FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 embodiments are quite similar.

The function of the PB elements is to provide a signaling channel forcommunicating back and forth between controller 51 and DSP 622. This canbe achieved in any of numerous ways that are well known to skilledartisans. One simple arrangement employs baseband digital signals thatare added by PB 61 into the cable 100 signal that flows from PB 61 to PB59, and a low-pass filter in PB 59 extracts the baseband digital signal.Communication in the reverse direction can take place in a similarmanner. If necessary, a filter in inserted in PB 61 to insure that noundesirable baseband signals pass from HC 100 through PB 611 and,conversely, that no baseband signals that are applied to PB 61 or PB 59are transmitted to HFC 100 toward the cable network's head end 110.

With reference to the arrangement depicted in FIG. 4, FIG. 5 presents asignaling flow diagram for a call that is incoming to telephone 160.Conventionally, when a call arrives at the public switched telephonenetwork (PSTN) 10 that is destined to telephone 160, the local exchangecarrier (LEC) that receives the call appends to caller ID to call setupmessage that it forwards, through the signaling network (e.g., the SS7network) to switch 140, which may belong to a LEC that is other that theLEC that originates the call. LEC 140 determines whether telephone 160is busy, and if it is not, sends a ringing signal to packet gateway 130.This is shown in FIG. 5 by line 21. Gateway 130 recognizes the ringingsignal and sends a corresponding control packet through POP 120 and headend 110 to HFC 100. This is shown by line 22. The packet is addressed(e.g. with IP address 199.222.104.160) so that only DSP 622 of BTI 65,which is programmed to be sensitive to address 199.222.104.160, acceptsthe packet. This is shown by line 23. DSP 622 ascertains that the packetrepresents a ringing signal, and proceeds to direct SLIC 615 to apply aringing signal to telephone 160. This is shown by line 24.

Between the first ringing interval and the second ringing intervalswitch 140 outputs caller ID information is accordance with astandardized signaling format. This information is appropriatelystructured and formatted by gateway 130, POP 120, head end 110, tuner760, receiving element 755 and framer 730, to arrive at DSP 622. This isshown in FIG. 5 by lines 25, 26, and 27. At step 28, DSP 622 ascertainswhether the information received from switch 140 contains either anindication that the calling party consciously elected to not have itscaller ID provided, or both the calling party's name and the callingparty's telephone number are present. When only the calling party'stelephone number is present, DSP 622 sends a request—upstream towardhead end 110—to a server (not shown) that is accessible over the SS7signaling network. The request provides the calling party's telephonenumber, and seeks a name to correspond to the provided number. Morespecifically, DSP creates a packet that addresses the aforementionedserver, which advantageously contains a national database of telephonenumbers and associated names, and sends the packet, appropriatelymodulated by framer 730, transmitter 740 and RF modulator 750, to headend 110. Head end 110 receives the information, sends the digital datato POP 120, and POP 120 recognizes the request aimed at the SS7 server.This national database is likely controlled by an inter-exchange carrier(IXC), or by a governmental authority. POP 120 accordingly constructs anSS7 signaling message and forwards the request to the server. This isshown by line 30 in FIG. 5. It is noted that POP 120 that includes acapability to communicate with the SS7 signaling network includes afunctionality that is not present in conventional Internet ServiceProvider's equipment, but that additional functionality is quiteconventional in any other respect and is well within the scope of allskilled artisans.

In response to the request, the server on the SS7 network sends amessage back to POP 120, as shown by line 31, POP 120 constructs apacket, and forwards it to DSP 622 via head end 110, HFC 100, andelements 760, 755, and 730. This is shown by line 32. DSP 622 receivesthe name information and, armed with caller ID telephone number andcaller name, in step 33 DSP 622 sends a message to controller 51 (via PB61 and 59) to create a menu page.

Pursuant to the directive received from DSP 622, and in conformance withinformation stored in its associated memory, controller 51 directs frame& sound generator 53 to create a menu not unlike the one illustrated inthe upper left hand portion of FIG. 6, as well as an associated curser.In the illustrated menu, the image on the screen of monitor 55 showsthat an incoming call is present, and that the call is from a party thathas a particular caller telephone number and name, as well as a varietyof options that have been programmed into set-top box 40. Illustrativein FIG. 6, the options are (a) causing telephone 160 to go off-hook in aspeakerphone mode (presuming, of course, that set-top box 40 wasprogrammed to offer this option because telephone 160 does have aspeakerphone mode), (b) ignoring the call and muting the ringing—toremove the annoyance of repeated ringing, (c) immediately direct thecall to an associated answering machine, and (d) transferring the call.Option (c) assumes that an answering machine is hooked up in parallelwith telephone 160 and that it is one that is adapted to accept acontrol signal between ringing intervals (e.g., not unlike the manner inwhich caller ID information is communicated) that causes the answeringmachine to immediately go off-hook. Option (d)—the call transferoption—requires a capability to transfer a call, and requires additionalinformation from the user if the destination of the call transfer is notknown a priori.

By using the arrows keys on the conventional controller 60, the user canpoint the curser to a particular option and press (illustratively) the“OK” button on controller 60 to decide on the desired option. Forexample, when the user chooses option (d)—the call transfer option—andpresses the “OK” button, controller 51 directs frame & sound generator53 to create and apply to combiner 56 the second menu. The second menuillustrated in FIG. 6 includes four options, illustrating four quitedifferent transfer types. Option (a) “cell phone,” is a transfer to aninstrument that may, or may not, be on the customer's premises, but isaccessible via the PSTN. Option (b) “Tommy,” may be a “plain oldtelephone system” (POTS) phone in some room on the customer's premises,which has a different telephone number (“teen phone”). This phone may,or may not, be connected to PSTN via HFC cable 100. Option (c) “Jane'sphone,” may be an extension in, for example, Jane's home office withinthe customer's premises. This may be a phone that shares the same numberas telephone 160. Lastly, option (d) “office,” is a transfer to someother telephone connected to PSTN that, illustratively, is not connectedto cable 100.

Implementing options (a) and (d) requires communication with head end110. Option (b) can be implemented through communication with head end110, or locally if Tommy's telephone line is incorporated within BTI 65with a separate port that is coupled to DSP 622 through a second elementnot unlike element 745. Option (c) requires the ability to switchbetween telephone 160 and Jane's telephone, which implies a switchingunit interposed between the output port of BTI 65 to which telephone 160is shown to be connected and the two telephones (telephone 160 andJane's telephone), or the creation of two ports out of DSP 622. Creationof such ports is clearly within the scope of any skilled artisan, if notalready well known.

In connection with the options that direct a call transfer to a unitthat is accessible via the PSTN or via the PSTN followed by a cellularnetwork, when controller 51 receives a signal that corresponds to such arequest, it interacts with the user to identify the specificdestination, if appropriate. In the menu illustrated in FIG. 6 no suchoption is presented, but a skilled artisan can easily incorporate suchan option. When controller 51 has sufficient information, itcommunicates its information to DSP 622, and DSP 622 creates aninformation packet for switch 140. This packet is communicated to headend 110 in the manner described above, and head end 110 transfers thatpacket to POP 120. POP creates a call transfer instruction that includesthe destination telephone number and forwards the instruction to switch140. Switch 140 executes the call transfer in a conventional manner.

In light of the above-disclosed two embodiments it should be realizedthat various other arrangements and methods are possible withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of this invention. To illustrateone, FIG. 7 presents an embodiment where the BTI and the set-top box arecombined in a single hardware unit, 66, where, the DSP 622 of FIG. 4 andthe controller 51 of FIG. 4 are combined into a single DSP 623. Allother elements in FIG. 7 that are numbered identically to like elementsin FIG. 4 perform the same function.

1. Apparatus including a first port for connecting, through a junction to a cable head-end, and including a second port for connecting to a telephone, and a digital signal processor comprising: a processing module that receives, via the first port, an alert bursts sequence having at least one burst, the bursts indicating that connection to the telephone is sought by a remote party, and further receives call information following a first burst of the alert bursts, performs an analysis of the call information, sends, via the first port, a message toward the head-end when the analysis determines that the call progress information fails to meet a selected sufficiency level, receives, via the first port, a responsive message that augments the call information; and first transmission means for communicating the augmented call information to a controller in a set-top box.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1 where the first transmission means is adapted to receive call progress directives from the set-top box, and the processing module is adapted to control progress of the connection pursuant to the directives.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2 where the first transmission means comprises an interface module interposed between the processing module and the first port for communicating the augmented call information in a format that refrains from interfering with signals on the cable that are sent by the head-end over the cable to the television.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a third port to which the first transmission means is connected, and which enables connection to the set-top box for effecting said communicating and said receiving.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a set-top box having a first port for connecting to the cable, a port for connecting to a television, and a port for IR control signals, which set-top box comprises a controller; second transmission means for receiving the augmented call information from the first transmission means and for applying the augmented call information to the controller and for sending directives from the controller to the processing module via the first transmission means, an IR receiver for accepting information from the IR port and forwarding the information to the controller, a frame and sound generator responsive to the controller for developing frame and sound information, and television receiving and displaying circuitry responsive to signals received from the cable, and the controller, and the frame and sound generator.
 6. The apparatus of claim 5 where the frame and sound generator is responsive to control signals from said controller that are generated in response to the call information, or in response to commands received from the IR receiver, or both.
 7. The apparatus of claim 6 where the sound frame and sound generator sends video frame information to the television receiving and displaying circuitry that results in the display of a curser on screen of a television connected to the port for connecting to a television. 